Some Sedona residents are getting active in a different sort of way.
The game of Ultimate, previously known as Ultimate Frisbee, has grown in popularity across the nation in the last 10 years. More than 700 college teams actively compete and a professional league, American Ultimate Disc League, started its inaugural season in April. A second professional league, Major League Ultimate, will begin next April.
Ultimate is a team sport, usually played with seven people on a team. The object of the game is to score points by passing the disc to a player in the opposing end zone. Players may not run with the disc, and may only move one foot, or pivot, while holding the disc. The game is similar to football, complete with strategies, tactics and offensive/defensive plays and has been popular on college campuses since the 1970s after the first game was played between Rutgers and Princeton universities.
“I got started playing Frisbee with my dad at a very young age, when I was around 4,” said Dylan George-Sills, who is now the vice president of the Ultimate club at Arizona State University. “From there, my interest in the game of Ultimate began in middle school when I found a group of individuals in Sedona who meet every week to play a local pick-up game. I was part of the local game for almost six years when I went off to college at ASU.”
The Sedona Ultimate Frisbee Club started in 2004 and it meets once or twice a week, depending on the season, to play pick-up games.
“Depending on the day of the week and season, we’ll find anywhere from six to 20 people show up for a pick-up game,” said Aaron Brandt, one of the founders of the group. “Those that show are part of a group of over 40 people that have been asked to be notified of our pick-up games.”
Brandt, along with Chad McMahan, Brad Christensen and Sierra Dye, all Sedona Red Rock High School alumni, started the group as a way for the high school friends to reconnect, get together and catch up.
For the full story, please see the Friday, Dec. 28, issue of the Sedona Red Rock News.
